About the Artwork
Two plumes of white steam rise from an unseen boat on the river Seine, signs of modern life juxtaposed with the Gothic towers of the thirteenth-century cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris. The artist observed the scene from the Left Bank of the river, punctuating the gray tones of the overcast day with flashes of bold color. The red jacket worn by a child walking along the river, bright white clouds reflected in puddles of water gathered in the gutter, and daubs of green for the gardens in front of the western facade of the cathedral guide a viewer through the mundane and monumental details of the scene.
The Massachusetts artist Childe Hassam painted this canvas during an extended period working and studying in France from 1886 to 1889. An accomplished academic painter when he arrived in Paris, he spent his time there absorbing a modern impressionist style for works like this.
Notre Dame Cathedral, Paris, 1888
1888
Childe Hassam
1859-1935
American
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Oil on canvas
Unframed: 17 1/2 × 21 1/2 inches (44.5 × 54.6 cm) Framed: 29 3/4 × 34 × 3 1/2 inches (75.6 × 86.4 × 8.9 cm)
Paintings
American Art before 1950
Founders Society Purchase, Robert H. Tannahill Foundation Fund
79.143
Copyright Not Evaluated
Markings
Signed and dated, lower left: Childe Hassam, 1888
Inscribed, on reverse: oval canvas stamp on original unlined canvas which reads: COULERS...?...TOILES A PEINDRE | TABLEAUX | REY + ---?--- | PARIS 61, RUE DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD Inscribed, on torn paper glued to the back of stretcher: WIL..?...FINE ARTS..?...DETROIT, MICH.
Provenance
1888-1890s, Childe Hassam;1890s-1979, The Detroit Club;
1979-present, purchase by the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)
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Provenance pageExhibition History
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The exhibition history of a number of objects in our collection only begins after their acquisition by the museum, and may reflect an incomplete record.
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Shaw, Nancy Rivard. "Curatorial Reports--American Art." Bulletin of the DIA 58, no. 4 (1980): pp. 184-185 (fig. 10).
Childe Hassam, American Impressionist. Exh. cat., Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2004.
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Credit Line for Reproduction
Childe Hassam, Notre Dame Cathedral, Paris, 1888, 1888, oil on canvas. Detroit Institute of Arts, Founders Society Purchase, Robert H. Tannahill Foundation Fund, 79.143.
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